criminal justice reform

Massive criminal justice reforms passed by the Legislature two years ago have shed the state’s title as the incarceration capital of the nation. Sentencing changes, including increased access to probation and parole, are also saving the state millions of dollars. 

Gov. John Bel Edwards announced, "the state of Louisiana no longer holds the title of incarceration capital of the nation."

Louisiana’s Legislature is already reconsidering a package of criminal justice reforms they passed last year. The goal was to lower the state prison population, which is the highest in the nation.

Much like health care and higher education in Louisiana, the Department of Corrections is facing deep budget cuts next fiscal year, which would leave them with less money to house inmates. 

A task force looking at dividing crimes into classes is close to drafting its final recommendations.

“I think we could propose having Class D be a zero-to-10-year class; Class E be a zero-to-five-year class,” suggests Scott Nettles, an attorney from Livingston.

But the Felony Class System Task Force is also looking to see if this will help solve the problem of calculating actual prison time.

How to summarize the year 2017 in state politics? Somewhat less trauma, but much of the same drama.

For the second year in a row, we had back-to-back-to-back legislative sessions, with Senate President John Alario repeating what became a familiar prediction: "There isn't a whole lot looks like that's going to get accomplished in this session."

Unsurprisingly, Gov. John Bel Edwards delivered a positive review of 2017 during his year-end press conference Wednesday.

"Despite the challenges that lie ahead, I remain extremely optimistic about the future of our great state," he said, while standing in front of one of the mansion's Christmas trees.

"What we are tasked with accomplishing is to create a system for over 600 felony offenses," explains former U.S. Attorney Kenneth Polite, who is chairing the state's Felony Class System Task Force.

The group is looking to categorize offenses as A, B, C, D types, etc., generally based on current sentence ranges delineated in Louisiana law. Polite admits it's not easy to untangle the issues.